Hamilton Township has produced its share of state and county champions this school year with the Nottingham boys’ basketball and Steinert girls’ soccer teams, but Kristie Kubala has taken township athletic achievement to the ultimate pinnacle as the Hamilton Square resident can accurately introduce herself as a world champion this summer.
The Rutgers freshman and 2017 Notre Dame High graduate was a member of the gold medal-winning Premiere Freestyle Pom Dance team at the International Cheerleading Union’s World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Fla. April 27. The U.S. amassed 615.5 points to beat out Japan (586.5) and Mexico (580).
“The feeling was indescribable,” Kubala said. “There was a flood of emotion that started when we were announced top three. When they got to announcing second place, as soon as the ‘J’ in Japan left their lips, we were all hysterical. That moment is one I will truly never forget. It really was a dream we all had come true, and it had come true together.”
The U.S. team is essentially the Rutgers dance team, which performs at Scarlet Knights’ athletic events and in competition. While the USA Cheer Team was a specially comprised national team featuring women from various schools, Pom uses a regional, pre-existing pom team to represent the entire nation.
Rutgers was that team.
The Scarlet Knights placed third in the national competition and—showing potential for the world competition—was asked by the Universal Dance Association to submit a video of its routine to USA Cheer.
“I guess they liked our routine as well, because we were chosen to hold the incredible honor of representing the USA at Worlds,” Kubala said.
And Kubala was one of the privileged ones going along for the ride. Not all of the women who perform at football and basketball games are asked to be on the competitive team. But the former Irish performer had what it took in her first year.
“Kristie is exactly the type of team member we are looking for,” Rutgers coach Christine Zoffinger said. “Being on the dance team, we are not looking for soloists but someone who has a desire to work with others to achieve a goal. Kristie was always a consummate team player. She brought an incredible work ethic as well as a can-do attitude with her. She is a pleasure to have at practice. You cannot be successful on our team without being dedicated and working hard and she proved that she can do both.”
‘This team is my family. All the work put in is easily justified because we do it together. ‘
Kubala began dancing at age 3 with the Stewart Johnson Dance Academy in Hamilton. She remained there for 14 years; dancing and competing in ballet, contemporary, tap, jazz and more.
“I attribute all of my technique, which is crucial for a high-level dance team, to those formative years at my studio with my teacher, Kim Spolitino,” Kubala said.
After attending St. Gregory the Great Academy through 8th grade, Kubala began cheering at Notre Dame. While there, she learned pom, how to hit movements hard and how to excite a crowd. It was a continued education that would culminate in Orlando.
“I used all of that—the pom handling, the technique, the hype—when I competed on behalf of the U.S.,” Kubala said.
And while she profusely enjoyed her four years of cheering in high school, her goal was to always be on a college dance team. It was Zoffinger’s standout program that attracted Kubala to Rutgers and, last April she auditioned for the team while still at Notre Dame. She was told she made it after arriving at RU last fall as a sports management major.
“All of our dancers need several qualities in order to be considered for our competition team,” Zoffinger said. “They need a high level of technical skill that comes from years of dance training, an ability to self-correct and adapt quickly to new movements and an overall high-performance quality. Kristie had no prior dance team experience but she had excellent skills and a strong work ethic. We have seen such an improvement in her this past year to become a skilled dance team member. She has an incredibly positive attitude that uplifts the entire team.”
It was a team on a mission after being chosen to represent America at the ICU championships. Freestyle Pom is a category that includes advanced jazz technique, some hip hop and acrobatic skills and the use of poms and “pom technique” (sharp, accented, highly synchronized arm and body movement). The Premier division requires the highest level of skill and showmanship.
According to Zoffinger, there is no featured performer, as the goal “is to dance together as uniform as possible.” It’s much like the Rockettes when kicking up their legs. The audience is not watching someone, it’s watching everyone.
“This uniformity includes all technical dance moves such as pirouettes and fouettés,” Zoffinger explained. “Our routine is a fast-paced, athletic, two-minute routine in which we dance with poms. Our motions and footwork needs to be as precise as possible. Each dancer brings their skills to the table but the real work is in looking exactly the same.”
To accomplish this, four-hour practices are held around three times per week throughout the year. After Rutgers was chosen for the World Championship, it had to tweak the routine that it displayed on its audition video. The ICU routine was choreographed by California’s Dan Sapp, who Kubala noted, “is known for his strong and hard-hitting Pom routines. I would say that the most compelling parts of our routine are our multiple, visually appealing formations, which have to be perfectly geometric, and the level of synchronization all 16 of us are able to maintain even when doing complicated turn sequences or ariels (no-handed cartwheels) across the floor.”
In the weeks leading up to Nationals and Worlds, practices were stepped up to once or twice per day, every day.
“It was physically exhausting for sure,” Kubala said. “But knowing we were going to Worlds, and potentially had a shot at winning, kept our spirits high and our bodies moving. And spending so much time together in those extra practices inevitably brings the team so much closer together, it really was a win-win.”
Zoffinger felt the Knights entered the competition fully confident that they had prepared as well as possible. They had a lot to live up to, as last year’s U.S. team won a silver medal in the same division.
The confidence grew after finishing the Day One semifinals in first place, but Rutgers left nothing to chance and rehearsed the entire night before the finals. When the final scores were announced, a season of hard work crashed in on Kubala in the most wonderful of ways.
“Both the physical exertion of practices and the huge time commitment definitely seemed daunting as an incoming freshman; when coupled with being thrown into a new environment and having to figure out college life,” she said. “But I think it was actually those long rehearsals and that expected level of commitment to the team that ended up making my transition into college the best it could be.
“This team is my family. All the work put in is easily justified because we do it together. Preparing for Worlds, we all felt the same pain and cried the same tears, and winning Worlds, we all erupted with the same joy. I honestly do not know what I would do if I didn’t have my amazing team at Rutgers. My college experience thus far is written in my experiences with the dance team.”
And while there’s much left to write before deeming her college career a happy ending, it sure has been a happy beginning.
Hamilton resident Kristie Kubala won the world championship with Team USA in premiere freestyle pom dancing in April. Kubala also belongs to the Rutgers dance team.,
